


Gold Eyes To Red

by ffrindyddraig



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ishbalan | Ishvalan, Gen, Ishbalan | Ishvalan Alphonse Elric, Present Tense, This is not a very good idea, Vaguely Non-Linear, at not a very good time of night, written into a not a very good story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-13
Updated: 2019-11-13
Packaged: 2021-02-01 06:48:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21424687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ffrindyddraig/pseuds/ffrindyddraig
Summary: It never occurs to Ed to tell people Al is only his half brother.An AU where Hohenheim leaves earlier, and Al is half-Ishvalan.
Relationships: Alphonse Elric & Edward Elric
Comments: 7
Kudos: 274





	Gold Eyes To Red

**Author's Note:**

> Looking at Ishvalan's AU's and I be like, what if only one brother was Ishvalan? And what if they didn't grow up with any Ishvalan traditions? IDK, this is OOC for Trisha, and really it's better if you don't over think it... or even read it.

"I still have red eyes," Al says, mournfully, looking in the Rockbell's mirror, a hulking empty suit of armour staring back. Ed tries to smile (it doesn't work, Al hasn't seen Brother grin since they made that _thing_), and punches his unfeeling shoulder with the only arm he has left.

"You can't hide from your genes." He says with a false laugh.

*

Ed doesn't remember his younger brother's birth. Doesn't remember his mother screaming in her bed, sweating and crying, as she pushes out another child whose father is long gone. Doesn't remember his mum, sweaty and exhausted, holding the baby out to him. Not crying, even then Al was the more reserved child. (He can't cry anymore anyway.)

Ed doesn't remember pointing at Al's eyes and saying "wrong."

*

Al is too young to understand when the extermination begins of his people. Mother holds him close as the news comes through on the radio, the crackling speakers declaring the tide will turn on the war with the state alchemists joining in and whisper apologies. But Al just pushes her hair back, looks at her with his big red eyes in confusion.

"They are not my family. You are."

He never understands why this made her cry more.

*

Ed does remember when Al broke his arm in training. Teacher, for all her tough exterior, rushes him to hospital, no mention of how pain strengths the soul, pushing his hair back softly like their mother used to do.

The hospital refuses to treat him. Vaguely Ed knew about the war, the discrimination, that Al was one of _Them_. But Resembool was a tight knit community, they knew Al as an Elric, not an Ishvalan. Ed is barely aware of the looks (glares) shot his brother's way since they left. (And Al himself had not mentioned them, not wanting to worry Ed.)

It was fine in the end - Teacher sorted them out.

*

Al hates the area under the floor boards. The walls pressing all around him. The thin strips between the boards the only light that shone through, abruptly casting him into darkness as the soldiers' boots stop above him.

To keep him safe, _alive_. His mother would whisper soft reassurances as she bundled him up and place him in, pressing kiss after kiss to his forehead, worry etched in every line of her face.

Al would spend the whole time laying their worried they would forget about him, leave him trapped in this tiny space forever.

He thinks death would be better than that.

*

"My hair's still white too."

"At least it's a decent length now."

*

It's funny, in a twisted, messed up way, that people stared at him less now he was a seven foot tall walking amour.

It was the only good thing about being trapped in an unfeeling hunk of metal, at least he was no longer an Ishvalan.

*

Ed gets a shock the first time he meets Scar. The realisation that all Ishvalan's were not like Al. That they had culture, a religion, values different from Amestris. It was more than just their colouring, a place where their family hailed from.

He finally understood why his brother said they were not a part of him.

*

Sometimes Al would sit in Mustang's office and stare at the Alchemist's gloves.

He wonders if the man killed his family.

He wonders if Mustang had turned up a day before Al was trapped in this amour, he would of killed him too.

*

"I'm glad your father left."

Ed shoots up in bed, anger in every line of his body, on the level of someone calling him small. "If my dad stayed mum wouldn't be dead."

"If your dad stayed I wouldn't be born."

Ed's mouth fell open. He never thought of it like that before.

*

Mei asks him if his real body looked like Ed's.

Al doesn't mention that it looked more like Scar's.

*

His brother's body is crumbling apart on the other side of the gate. Malnourished and weak, barely able to stand up.

He hates the fact that Al would probably like it more now - if he closed his blood red eyes, he could pass as Amestrian.

*

Al watches Scar pray in his native language. He thinks he's asking for forgiveness.

He thinks maybe he too should seek repentance in a God he should believe in.

*

Ed keeps a photograph of him, mother and Al in his wallet.

One would think they were three strangers who happened upon each other if not for the love in their eyes.

*

"Miles is like you." Al snorts.

"He's nothing like me."

"Don't be stupid Al, talk to him."

"About what? In this body I'm not Ishvalan."

"Your soul still is."

Al doesn't talk to him for the rest of the day.

*

Al comes out of the gate so weak he doesn't notice the shock in his friends' eyes when they look at him, the way they stare. Ed thinks that's better, that his brother just got his body back, he needn't be weighed down by the negatives so quickly.

It is Hawkeye that breeches it first. An uncomfortable "Al is not what I expected."

Ed rubs the back of his neck, grins awkwardly. "Didn't I tell you we were half brothers?"

*

"I'm sorry." It's the first thing Mustang says to Al when he wakes up. He's still blind, unable to see the body that lays in the bed, but he still knows, was told by someone. Hawkeye stands next to him, and Al knows she wanted to say the same.

He looks out the window, watchs the clouds drift past. "I don't care." He whispers, and wishes they could see past his skin.

*

"What did Scar want?" Ed asks, though he already knows. Al isn't stupid, could see right through it, still he answers.

"To teach me the ways of the people. Apparently Ishval commands I keep the traditions of _our_ _people_." He spits those last words, like it left an ugly taste in his mouth. Ed sighs.

"Al, maybe you should think about - "

"I want to go back to Resembool."

*

This isn't Al's plan. He was meant to go to Xing, learn Alkahestry. He wasn't meant to be here, outside Scar's door.

He doesn't look at the man when he answers, stares intently at his left ear and says "yes."

Scar already knows the question, opens the door wider, and lets him in.


End file.
